Leisure Suits

Leisure suits, which gained popularity among men during the 1970s, were
casual suits consisting of matching jacket and trousers. They were made of
polyester fabric, often in bright colors or earth tone plaids. The leisure
suit jacket was distinctively
styled, with an open front with large collar and lapels, large patch
pockets, and stitching in a color that contrasted with the fabric.
Beginning in the early 1960s, fashion designers experimented with stylish
and casual suits for men in an effort to modernize men's fashions
to keep pace with women's changing styles. French designers Pierre
Cardin (1922–) and Yves Saint Laurent (1936–) both
introduced modern looks for men. Cardin's collarless suit, made
famous by the British pop band the Beatles, and Saint Laurent's
"safari suit," were both forerunners of the leisure suit,
which offered men casual, stylish looks that soon developed into the
distinctive styling of the leisure suit.

In 1970 American designer Jerry Rosengarten (c. 1945–) invented a
new style of suit that paired a shirt jacket with matching pants to
demonstrate the usefulness of a new double-knit polyester fabric. Pants
maker Lee Jeans marketed Rosengarten's design in a line for men and
boys called LEEsures. Influenced by the extremely informal style
associated with the hippies, a group of young people who rejected
conventional values and dress, men of the 1970s wanted to be able to dress
more casually. Leisure suits were marketed to these buyers as comfortable
business suits. Though they were never really accepted as business dress,
they did become popular for parties, discos, and other social events.
Mothers especially liked the new suits for their young sons, because the
polyester fabric was extremely durable and easy to care for.

Often worn with brightly patterned polyester shirts, gold chains and
medallions, and vinyl platform shoes, leisure suits were briefly very
popular. Perhaps the most famous leisure suit was worn by actor John
Travolta (1954–) when he starred as a disco dancer in the film
Saturday Night Fever
(1977). Before too long, however, there was a backlash against the suits.
Some upscale restaurants began to post signs forbidding the suits, and
they gradually fell out of fashion. Leisure suits have endured, however,
as a symbol of 1970s fashion extremes. In the twenty-first century fans of
retro fashion gathered for leisure suit conventions to show off the bright
polyester costumes that they would hardly dare to wear anywhere else.